From the kitchen to the racetrack and back again

Chicken and chips

That is what the Other Half announced he wanted for dinner. Chicken and chips. Helpfully accompanied by stating we had plenty of mushrooms and he’d bought some cream to make a sauce with. So off I set.

First of all I decided I was going to pan fry the chicken. Usually I’d either cook it in the oven or poach it but today for some reason I decided pan frying was the way to go. Whilst the oil and butter were heating up, I put the chicken in a bowl, added the flour and parmesan, covered with cling film and shook it all up until the chicken was well coated. Add to the frying pan and cook until brown on both sides and cooked through. As I had chips in the oven, I put the chicken in the oven to finish cooking through whilst I made the sauce but that did involve getting another pan dirty, something I try to avoid wherever possible!

To make the sauce use the same frying pan and finely slice the onion with a mandolin, cook on a low heat until softened and just starting to colour, then add the mushrooms. Cooked for two to three minutes then add a splash of wine (normally this is roughly the same as the volume of stock but I never measure so it was what was left in the bottle) and allow it to reduce until hardly any liquid left. Then it is time to add the black pepper and stock, which needs to reduce by at least half. Turn down the heat and add the cream, stirring until well combined and then allow to cook through for a few minutes.

The chicken was then served on top of some of the sauce with chips and peas. For a healthier version, I’d use crème fraiche instead of cream, stir the peas into the sauce just after the stock and serve with pasta and other veg instead. Other less healthy alternatives include adding bacon at the same time as the mushroom and serving with home made chips, roast potatoes or parmentier potatoes. Sometimes ease and speed take priority, tonight was one of those nights!